Do not love the world or the things in the world. (1 John 2:15)

My oldest daughter was three years old when we walked through Disney and her little voice rose to my ears: “Daddy, are we in Vanity Fair?” Are we in Bunyan’s famous town that detains Christian pilgrims on their journey to the Celestial City with its consumerism, comforts, and trinkets? “Yes,” I replied. “Yes, we are.”

The modern world has perfected Vanity Fair. The average middle-class man would hesitate to switch places with ancient kings. Our lives are lived between commercials; million-dollar industries train us in greed. Your best life now is sold at the mall, in the gym, and even from some pulpits. Eat, drink, and be merry — you only live once.

This is Satan’s dream for you before it was America’s. A love for more stuff, a love that wraps its arms around this world for its greatest happiness, a love that keeps you captive to the here and now and apathetic toward eternity — this is a love from below. It is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. And it grasps for an unholy trinity: lusts of the flesh, lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16).

Unholy Trinity

All that is in the world — the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life — is not from the Father but is from the world. (1 John 2:16)

What is this unholy trinity of the world’s lusts?

When I think of lusts of the flesh, I think of David and Bathsheba, of Samson and Delilah, of the sluggard in Proverbs, enslaved to his appetites. When I consider lusts of the eyes, I think of the garden where Eve saw the fruit, saw that it was pleasing, and ate. Or when I imagine the pride of life, I think of the Pharisees who received glory from each other; of Haman, who hated righteous Mordecai; of Herod, who was confused for a god, did not correct the error, and was fed to worms.

And while all of these illustrate the truth and are given for our instruction, it wasn’t until recently that I considered a place where all three temptations collide: the grand temptation of our Lord Jesus Christ. We learn from him how to resist and conquer these three dragons.

Tempting His Flesh

He who was the true Israel must take up the sword where the other Israel fell. The Spirit put the Son at a distinct disadvantage: Jesus did not eat for forty days. Those of us who have missed lunch and groaned understand how fasting can leave you vulnerable to temptation. Satan knew it, and thus we read,

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” (Luke 4:1–3)

Jesus is hungry. Satan tempts him at his weakest. The lust of the flesh that Satan offered was not sexual, but hungerful. His flesh craved food, and Satan tempted him with bread. Why not provide for himself by commanding stones into bread, since he is the Son of God? Bread is no evil. Jesus later teaches us to pray for our daily loaf from our heavenly Father. Yet Jesus, as the perfect man, was not to get bread on his own terms. Better to die of starvation in the wilderness than to sin. So, Jesus answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone’” (verse 4).

Life does not come from sustaining your body with the world’s bread, but by living from the revealed will of God. Jesus teaches us how to fight the lusts of the flesh: remember that life is about far more than flesh; it’s about God and his word.

Tempting His Eyes

When Jesus would not prioritize his fading flesh and its appetites, the devil sought to brighten his eyes with the greatest advertisement in the history of the world.

The devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” (Luke 4:5–7)

He tried to hook his soul through dangling the glittering worm of the world before his eyes. Calvin understands the lust of the eyes to entail lustful looks “as well as the vanity which delights in pomps and empty splendor” (Calvin’s Commentaries). Here was dazzling splendor to the highest degree (yet empty, if attained by sin).

Men and women all over the world see far less and sell their souls at a much cheaper price. Even for the chance at attaining the empty splendor before their mind’s eye, countless people do perverse things — some explicitly cutting deals with the devil. Moses is a hero of the faith because he denied the riches of Egypt and chose to suffer with God’s anointed people. Jesus, the greater prophet, refused the glory of ten thousand Egypts set before him and chose to make a lost people his kingdom through his own torture (Revelation 5:9–10).

See how Jesus answers: “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve’” (Luke 4:8). He teaches us: Better no fame or applause with God than king of every kingdom without him. Better to serve his Father and live upon earth with no place to rest his head — even as the Father leads on to Golgatha — than worship the devil and receive all his eyes could see.

Tempting His Pride

Satan introduces the first and third temptations with the same phrase: “If you really are the Son of God.” Satan calls for Jesus to prove himself, show his special status as the Son, proudly display his robe of many colors. In this third temptation, Satan turns up the volume:

And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written,

‘He will command his angels concerning you,
to guard you,’

and

‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” (Luke 4:9–11)

Jesus had just been coronated at his baptism as God’s beloved Son, on whom his Father’s pleasure rested (Luke 3:22). Immediately after, he was ushered into the wilderness to be tempted. Satan attended his baptism. He heard the pronouncement over Jesus. “God’s beloved Son” — what an exalted position; would he mind proving it? Why hide? Why not make a spectacle for the principalities and powers to show that one has come among men to whom these high beings must bow? Why not jump from this temple, since it is promised that angels will rush to his rescue? That is, of course, if you are the Son of God.

Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test’” (Luke 4:12). The time to be openly declared the Son of God would come — through his resurrection from the dead (Romans 1:4). His exaltation, his grand reveal in glory, would come after his death. He must throw himself down into the tomb and bid no angel rescue him. He would fall not from the temple but as the temple, and then he would rise again (John 2:19–22).

We too resist the honor, the renown, the pride of this fleeting life for our true glory yet to come: “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:4). With that, the devil, exhausting his stock of temptations, departed until a more opportune time (Luke 4:13).

Passing Through

Christian, we follow Christ, and like him, we must not love the world or anything that is in the world, resisting a world that inflames the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life. John gives us a convincing reason: this world is passing away along with its desires.

This life is but the entryway to elsewhere. The world counsels, “Invest all your time, thought, and energy in your few steps down that corridor.” John counsels us to walk our way down with both eyes on the door.

The world, even now, sinks, but John provides a contrast: “Whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:17). This is the one life that will survive flood and fire. We do not love this world because we belong to the next; we do not pour all our attention into this life because we await Christ, who is our life. Dear reader, do not spend your life filling the hallway with stuff. Soon, and very soon, we will all pass through the doorway to God.